


Galactica

by Natsumiya_Teirin



Series: The Angel Of the Dying Stars [1]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Angels vs. Demons, Everyone Loves Natsume Takashi, Gen, Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired by Fanart, Yanderes - Freeform, Youkai Natsume Takashi, and implications of dark obsessive/possessive behavior, cause it's me, except not really, he's technically a space angel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29168979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natsumiya_Teirin/pseuds/Natsumiya_Teirin
Summary: Natsume Takashi is like outer space. His hair is the brilliant silver of a supernova, and his eyes shine like cosmic green nebulae.Natsume Takashi is strange, but kind- empty even as he offers himself for everyone else.No force on Earth can possibly fathom the depths of his infinite-abyss-heart.
Relationships: Madara "Nyanko-sensei" & Natsume Takashi, Natsume Takashi & Everyone, Natsume Takashi & Taki Tooru & Tanuma Kaname
Series: The Angel Of the Dying Stars [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2206947
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	1. Kaguya

**Author's Note:**

  * For [epicinthelibrary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/epicinthelibrary/gifts).



> I just saw a really pretty picture of neon, space angel Natsume, accompanied by equally pretty words, and I was inspired to write this.  
> Here's a link to the picture in question;
> 
> https://uniformbravo.tumblr.com/post/642012885810380800/natsumiyasblog-astralibrary-natsume-as-a-space

Somewhere unknown to most, in the deep vastness of outer space, there are angels. Or at least, there is one angel. If there ever were other angels, they'd long since left him behind. 

But that's fine. 

The other angels were old, he tells himself, and surely they had better places to be. 

It's not their fault. 

And the young angel with silver supernova hair and green nebulae, starlit eyes- is perfectly content with this. Really. It's fine. Stop looking at him like that. 

He is happy because he has the stars, crooning ancient lullabies as he holds them and whispering their secrets into his ears. 

And more than the stars, he has Madara, who is not so much a constellation as he is literal starlight, and the great celestial beast swore to protect him- albeit for reasons the young angel does not yet understand. 

And then, one by one, the stars he holds so carefully in his arms begin to collapse and die, and amidst the beauty of the nebulae and galaxies, even this is beautiful. 

The stars explode, and just before they go silent, they offer to the young angel their names, and quietly request that he not forget them. 

And so, in the next billion years, for given definitions of "years" between solar systems, he remembers the names of each and every star that died softly in his embrace, of every shrieking, cracking planet, of every human corpse floating listlessly in the infinite void. He takes their names and treasures them as if they are the most precious things in the universe, and then when the stars and planets and humans reincarnate, he returns their names, polished and shining and brilliant.

And then, he happens upon a tiny planet. 

It is still new, little more than water and dirt held together by gravity, but the young angel- The Angel Of Dying Stars- is connected to the universe as an angel of Heaven is connected to God, and he feels a heartbeat eminating from it. The tiny palpitations of budding life.

Perhaps, if such a concept exists in the minds of angels, this pride and hope for this new life- this desire to see this new planet thrive- would be likened to a new father seeing his child for the first time.

And there, with a new planet before him and Madara patiently floating at his side, The Angel Of Dying Stars comes to a decision.

"I will name this planet." He declares. 

Madara's ears flick towards him.

"Are you sure? It's one thing to return a name, but it's another thing entirely to create a new one." 

The angel smiles.

"Yes. I want to name it- I think "Earth" fits it nicely." 

Madara grumbles, but the angel doesn't pay attention. A comforting weight settles on his shoulders, above his golden comet-tail wings. 

This newborn planet- Earth- will grow and live and die, and the Angel Of Dying Stars decides he wants to ensure this new life thrives. And then, when Earth dies like all planets do, he will take its name and cherish it until it is ready to be given to something else. 

And it is with this in mind that the bright angel becomes a falling star, and plummets into the gaseous sea-planet he'd named Earth.


	2. Futaba

The star-boy-angel is familiar with young planets, and he is familiar with humans. He is familiar with young planets like Earth, and he knows humans would be able to handle the challenges of it.

So it is in a human guise that he spends his first days on Earth- or at least, it feels like a few days, but if one were going by solar rotations, it'd really be closer to a few million years.

He floats in the oceanic sphere, tasting the saltiness of the endless sea and the bitterness of the life-giving chemicals within it. He swims with the microscopic bacteria, laughing and playing and listening to their newborn voices. 

And then, they evolve. 

Ultrasonic, tinnitic ringing deepens to high-pitched chirps and squeaks, and then further to deep growls and low roars. 

Micro-organisms become fish become amphibians become reptiles become birds. 

(Some become something more, for the sake of their beloved angel- something born of love and dreams and stardust. Something someone in the distant future refers to as "youkai".)

The great bird-reptiles, the dinosaurs, are thunderous and mighty and strong, but they see The Angel Of Dying Stars, who gave Earth its name and who watched their microscopic ancestors and treasured them, and they love him as he loves them, loves what they were, what they are, and what they will be. 

And atop the newly formed land, amidst the scarce, developing vegetation, the angel watches, Madara a silver-furred beast at his side, as stars fall to the surface of Earth. 

He'd seen similar sights before, but only from the other side, as bits of space rocks fly into rocky planet surfaces, but from here, where he can see the falling meteorites like bits of golden stardust amidst a black, silver-speckled night, they look beautiful.

And it is enough to make him forget. 

* * *

Earth trembles. The dinosaurs die and their bones sink as oceans rise up again. 

The star-boy-angel cherishes even this, and vows to remember their names as he had all those before. 

With their natural predators mostly gone, smaller creatures venture out into the new world, and some evolve further, until finally, The Angel Of Dying Stars and his companion The Celestial Beast Madara meet the first humans. 

They are small and barely sentient, especially compared to dinosaurs. Their fur is still prominent, thick and dark, but not quite as much as the apes'. What skin can be seen is dark, perhaps to better reflect the sunlight. 

And they see the pale silvery angel-and-beast, and they make strange clicking noises and brandish their hunting spears. But there are only two of them, so far, and Madara is large. 

The Celestial Beast growls low, a warning, and the angel smiles as he steps up. He understands them regardless of their speech, because he communicates with the universe, and he gives them their names, Adam and Lucy.

And then they surprise him and ask to know his name. 

Until now, the young star-boy-angel had no need for a name of his own, and so he is carefully silent. 

When he does speak, it is not his voice which answers, but rather, the universe itself, bestowing a name upon him like it had not for other angels.

And he makes himself known to Adam and Lucy, in a fashion that will become popular in this region later, as Natsume Takashi. 


	3. Sapling

There are some things the newly-named Takashi does not know, and would not know still unless he'd really spoken to humans in the past. 

The universe does not tell him of human psychology, after all. 

Adam and Lucy are social creatures, and after learning Takashi's name, they invite him to hunt with them. 

Madara is eager- he'd only hunted spacial demons, before, and compared to the vastness of space, hunting prey on a singular planet would be a new experience. 

So Takashi agrees. 

He hunts beside Adam and Lucy and considers the natural order of things. 

He leads the humans to old and sick animals, those who are ready to die, and as they die, he commits their names to memory, as well. 

And in this way, time passes. 

Takashi is ageless, and Adam and Lucy and the humans growing beside and beyond them begin to develop small tribes. And then those tribes develop into civilizations, and the ageless Takashi does his best to teach and nourish these new settlements. 

The humans and beasts of Earth are not his, but they are precious, determined, curious things, and he loves them so very much.

And as Earth changes and the ancient landmass of Pangea splits apart and shifts, Takashi finds that he is an object of their love, in turn- a deity, blessed and cursed with the eternal love of the humans he just wants to help. 

Takashi, The Angel Of Dying Stars, The Boy-God Of Love, Rebirth, and Death. 

It unsettles him.

* * *

As with all things that are "good", there is an equal measure of "evil". 

And oftentimes, what is "good" can be twisted and corrupted into "evil". 

Where there are space angels, there must also be space demons. 

Like the angels, demons are born from love and stardust, but where angels embody love and letting-go and nurturing, demons embody darker aspects, often those same basic concepts taken to an unhealthy degree- lust and possession and envy and objectification and murder and insanity and sado-masochism, to extreme, perhaps even psychotic levels. 

Knowing this, it could be argued that angels are destined to become demons, or that demons were once angels, and perhaps those arguments would even be true. Perhaps. 

But as many myths propogate, the defining difference between angels and demons is their role in regards to humanity. 

What it boils down to is this: 

Angels work to preserve the natural order of the universe. This means making sure everything happens when it should and doing what is necessary to continue the various cycles of causality. In Takashi's case, this means taking the names- and with them, the basic memories of a given lifeform- and passing those names on to the new bodies meant to house those memories. 

Conversely, demons work to disrupt the cycle, often indirectly. This could be done through something as small as bumping into a human (and delaying that human's journey by precious seconds), or something as big as placing a dying star near a new planet so it'd get caught up in the resulting explosion. 

And in a universe where angels are mostly absent, demons are _everywhere._

There are many things Takashi does not know, because he is young and the universe only gives him basic information- names and images and associative sounds and instincts. 

But the universe does not teach him to recognize a demon. And it does not teach him of human psychology. 

Takashi loves and is loved, and demons act in love (in name only), using it to justify their cosmic treachery.

* * *

Long ago, after the other angels left but before Takashi encountered a silver starlight beast, he met a demon. 

"Oh, little starlight thing, why are you alone?" It asked him. And Takashi was young and wanting and ignorant, and so he answered. 

"The other angels left me." 

And the demon pulled him close, darker than the blackest of black holes, and spoke in a voice like gentle moonlight. 

"Then stay with me, lonely starlight thing."

* * *

Takashi is young and there are things he does not know. 

He loves his (not-his) humans, and they love him.

And demons work in love. 

Many millennia ago, Takashi met a demon. 

Many millenia hence, Takashi is deified, and Madara relegated to a divine servant rather than an equal or a companion.

Takashi doesn't make the connection.

Even more millenia pass. Empires rise and fall, fighting for a love ancient and twisted and half-remembered, and oblivious to the intricacies of human nature, Takashi does not interfere.

And suddenly the year is 2012 on the human calendar, and Takashi finds himself in a small town near the rural countryside of a place the humans have named Japan. 


	4. First-Contact

Takashi met Natsume Reiko about fourteen years after she was born- fourteen years after the universe whispered to him what her name would be. 

In a tiny town unknown to many, he met her- the girl who looked so much like him, but also not. Her eyes were cold and calculating, but longing, and somehow Takashi wasn't surprised at all when she pointedly gaped at his comet-trail wings and his starlight-halo-crown and asked if he was an angel. 

She was the only human he'd known who could see beyond his physical form and to his love-formed wings, and so he told her what he was. 

"You look like me. Are you my guardian angel?" 

And he said yes because, in a way, he was, and her face twisted as she demanded to know where he was when the other humans spent the last decade hurting her. 

And he didn't know what to say- didn't know how to tell her that he wasn't able to protect individual life without harming generalized life and disrupting the cycle of causality.

So instead he held her as she cried and listened when she would visit him in the ancient shrine that was once a hut he'd lived in, before his precious humans had decided he was a god. 

And then she grew up and died and the universe told him he wasn't allowed to take her name- told him that she would become an angel. 

He asked if perhaps she would join him here, on Earth, or anywhere, because he really had grown fond of her, and didn't receive an answer. 

Meeting Fujiwara Touko is a reminder of that time. 

Madara had left some fifty-four years ago to hunt a demon who was getting too close to Earth and he had yet to return, so a worried Takashi waited for him in the hut that'd long since become more shrine than home.

And on her way home, to escape a sudden dusk-shining downpour, Fujiwara Touko slips into a mysterious shrine.

She sees Takashi- sees a boy made of galaxies and starlight and nebulae- and she looks so in awe Takashi wonders if she can, like Reiko, see his wings. 

Her face softens from surprise to something softer, the faint memories of her name telling her that the boy is safe and warm and loving (and lonely). 

"Oh my! It's rare to see a child in a place like this nowadays!" She says, her eyes shining with something warm and precious. She looks out to the rainclouds, grey tinged with twilit gold, and shakes her head slowly.

"So late, too- boys like you should be at home with their parents by now." 

She looks at him with sincerity and kindness in her eyes, and Takashi responds in kind. 

"This place is my home," he says, smiling softly. Then he looks around, at the elegant candles and shining stones and other assorted items that'd been given to him as tribute over the years, devoid of the love he'd once felt from them- as if they were meant for a charicature rather than a living being. And he frowns as a bittersweet realization takes hold. 

"Or at least...it was. But...it's cold here and...I'm all alone now." 

Touko frowns as the air grows heavy, and her subconscious interprets his words. 

Her conscious brain doesn't know what he is, doesn't understand the meaning behind his words, but she gets the general idea. 

The boy before her, pale and wraith-like and star-like, doesn't have a home, or even a family for that matter. 

"Then, would you stay with me and my husband?" She offers. 

And the boy whose name she doesn't know tenses, as if, just for a moment, he'd forgotten she was even there. 

"Ah...are you sure?" He asks, and Touko can see a distant, world-weary yearning in his eyes. "Are you sure it's okay?" 

She laughs gently.

"Of course- I wouldn't have asked otherwise." 

He pauses, considering. 

"...alright," he says at length. "If...if you're sure it's okay, then...please take care of me."


	5. Familiar Strangers

Fujiwara Shigeru is a simple man living a simple life. He gets up and dresses for work, then enjoys a delicious breakfast prepared by his beautiful, beloved wife before going to said work. Then, he works all day and returns home to a lovingly-cooked dinner, and if there's time between all that, he'll work on his pottery. Then he goes to bed. Rinse. Repeat.

It's a comfortingly simple routine.

But on one certain day, mere days after lamenting with Touko the emotiness of their childless lives, and maybe twenty minutes after a decent rainshower, that routine changes. 

Shigeru returns home and leaves his shoes in the genkan, and when he enters the living room he doesn't smell Touko's cooking.

It's okay, he tells himself, she probably got caught in the rain and hasn't had the chance to start cooking yet. 

So he enters the kitchen, thinking he'll fix up a snack to hold him over till dinner's ready, and he sees his kind, sweet Touko like he expects-

And he sees a young man, more of a young _boy_ actually, standing beside her and peeling potatoes with a serene smile Shigeru thinks would befit Buddha. 

Touko startles, her hands flying to her mouth. 

"Oh! Shigeru-san! Welcome home!" 

Shigeru pauses, considering his approach. He could tease Touko, say something snarky about affairs and soap operas, but the boy beside her looks like a tiny whisp of a thing, and he decides he'd feel bad taking that route. 

So he smiles kindly and says "I'm home", and because he can't resist making some sort of joke, he adds in a light tone, "Touko-san, if you wanted to take in a stray so badly we could've looked at the pet shelter."

It's a joke, really, but Touko gives him a nervous look that really doesn't suit her at all. 

"Ah...Shigeru-san...about that...well...I came across Takashi-kun here, and he told me he has no family, and he's homeless, so..." 

The boy-Takashi-kun- bows, a half-peeled potato in one hand and the peeler in the other. 

"I'm so sorry for the trouble- if you'd rather not have me here, I don't mind leaving, and-" 

Shigeru places a hand on Takashi's head, cutting him off. He smiles as the boy looks up questioningly. 

"Now, no one ever said that. You're welcome to stay with us as long as you'd like, Takashi-kun. In fact," he looks back to Touko and takes in her relieved expression. 

"We were just thinking this house is a bit big for the two of us," she says, clasping her hands together. 

Shigeru nods. 

"Mm. We were thinking of adopting a child anyway, so there's already a bedroom cleared out for you, if you'd like it." 

Takashi makes a startled sound and Shigeru wonders how much kindness he'd received, if even this is startling, and he takes a second to feel grateful for his own parents and, more than them, his stubbornly kind and selfless wife. 

"...thank you, Fujiwara-san. You two are so kind...I'll put myself in your care, then." 

And somehow, those words make Shigeru so unreasonably happy- as if perhaps he'd looked upon the face of God and been found Worthy. Suddenly energized, he removes his hand from Takashi's head and grins. 

"We can discuss the finer details after dinner," he says already reaching for an apron hanging on a cabinet knob. "Now, what can I do to help?" 


	6. Hunter and Prey

Roughly fifty-four years ago, Madara sensed a demon approaching Earth- approaching his charge and the planet his angel loved so much. 

Fifty-four years ago, Madara left to hunt down a demon. He couldn't destroy it, couldn't eat it, but he could tear it apart and let the resulting, remaining spacedust float away into the stars and reform somewhere further away. 

It wasn't taken care of quite as quickly as the Celestial Beast would've liked- four rotations of Earth around its sun- but he knew his angel would be fine.

* * *

Only on the way back do things go pear-shaped.

Madara hurtles through the atmosphere and lands on the ground probably a few hundred miles from where he'd meant to, but he doesn't have time to correct himself as something sharp hits him from the side. 

He looks down and to his right. 

An arrow? 

His first thought is not "who just shot me?" so much as "who even uses arrows anymore?", and then he turns his head again and sees a figure he doesn't recognize. 

Where Takashi has wings like golden comet-tails and a halo of bright silvery starlight, defying gravity and hovering an inch above his head, this stranger- this demon- does not. 

He has wings as black and all-consuming as a black hole, and his halo, fallen to become more of a crown or circlet, is the dim burnt red color of dead, cooled stars and fragments of planets after a supernova. 

A demon in form, and yet, even as he sees him, Madara cannot sense him. 

The demon holds a bow made of yew. There is no drawstring, but he forms an arrow of negative light and knocks it, something _like_ a string appearing as he pulls back. 

He smirks and Madara tries to jump out of the way, but his legs won't move. 

The arrow stuck in his side pulses with something dark and crawling. 

"He doesn't need you," the demon says, his voice soft and dangerous. It doesn't take a genius to know who he refers to. 

Madara growls and tries again to move, channeling his energy to the arrow in his side. It breaks off and he jumps just in time to avoid the second one. 

"You don't know what you're talking about!" He exclaims, incensed.

* * *

In the past, in an effort to keep a younger, curious Takashi from following Madara when he went hunting for demons, Madara had made a habit of concealing his aura and masking his presence. He keeps it masked even now.

This unfamiliar demon who dares to call him obsolete pins his ear to a cat-shaped statue with a stray shot, and it's such a small thing compared to him that he doesn't even notice. 

Except the demon's already-eerie grin grows even _more_ eerie, and then Madara feels a tugging sensation from the statue, and he's tired from dodging all those arrows so he can't fight it-

And just like that, with only lingering swirls of stardust and a faint heat to the earth, Madara is sealed away. 

The demon turns and begins to leave, only to pause. His smile unwavering, he waves his hand. 

The grass at his feet lifts and compresses, forming a sort of rope, which grows and twists and writhes until there is a neatly-tied rope barrier further enforcing Madara's seal. 

And only then does the demon leave, to begin searching for his own prey. 

Many years ago, Madara developed a habit of masking his aura in an effort to keep his charge safe. He very much regrets that decision now.

* * *

Dinner with Touko and Shigeru is light and comfortable, but also heavy with feelings of love and acceptance and admiration and so many other warm and fuzzy feelings Takashi can't even name them all (and that's quite a feat).

After they finish eating, Touko begins clearing the dishes and Shigeru begins asking questions. 

"Do you go to school here?" He eventually asks, and Takashi answers honestly because he has nothing to gain from lying or omitting things.

"I don't go to school." 

After all, what use is human perceptions of math and science for a boy who'd watched over Earth since its birth? 

Shigeru hums. 

"Well, can't have that. This weekend we'll test your academic level and enroll you in the local high school." 

Takashi nods his head. 

"Okay. Thank you." 

Shigeru's frown morphs into something Takashi can't quite place, and he stands up. 

"There's no need to thank us. Would you like to come up and see your room?" 

"Yes, please." 

So, leaving Touko to take care of the dishes, Takashi follows Shigeru upstairs.

* * *

"There's a futon for you in this cabinet, Takashi-kun." 

"Thank you, Shigeru-san." 

Shigeru leaves and Takashi looks around the-...his room. 

There's a desk with a lamp atop it and a chair slid beneath it, and a low set table with two cushions stowed beneath that.

The closet is empty, and in a cabinet beside the door is a neatly folded futon with two blankets and a pillow on the shelves beneath it.

Takashi takes out the futon and the blankets and pillow and makes it all up nice and neat and tidy in the center of the room. 

He doesn't need to sleep- just like he doesn't need to eat or drink or even breathe- but it looks nicer this way, and if he does decide to sleep, it'll be nice to have it out and ready. 

That done, Takashi stands at the window and looks out at the clear, star-speckled sky. 

It's been fifty-four years since Madara left.


	7. Needle and Thread

Takashi sleeps because if he's asleep he's not awake to worry about Madara. And as he sleeps, he dreams. 

He dreams of flying over a sprawling green forest and then over half-flooded rice fields, and through this, Madara is by his side. 

Takashi wakes up feeling forlorn and just as worried as he did when he fell asleep.

* * *

Shigeru leaves for work after ruffling Takashi's hair and pecking Touko's cheek. She smiles as she sees him off, and then her eyes lock on the frayed clothes Takashi is still wearing. The same frayed clothes he wore yesterday (and a good number of days before that, not that she could tell quite that much). 

She nods her head sharply, a hard look in her eyes, and Takashi wonders how he must look to her. 

"After the dishes are taken care of, Takashi-kun, I'm going to take you to buy new clothes!" 

Her tone bodes no room for argument, so as much as he doesn't really need anything, just pretends to so he can keep up appearances and not worry his precious humans, he nods his head and smiles in agreement.

"Okay. Thank you, Fujiwara-san." 

She huffs and turns to the sink to begin washing the dishes from breakfast. 

"None of that now, please- if you're staying with us, just call me Touko." 

"Okay...Touko-san." 

With that, Takashi stands beside her and dries whatever dishes she hands him, and between them the kitchen sink is cleared out in about ten minutes.

* * *

Hitoyoshi is small, but not so small that there isn't at least a shopping center. 

In his faded, frayed brown pants and his off-white, equally frayed shirt, Takashi gets a few curious looks, but pays them no mind as he lets Touko drag him between different clothing stores. 

She asks his opinion on various shirts and jackets and pants and shoes, but he has none, so she settles on whatever looks good- mostly dark colors to contrast his silvery hair, with some pastel colored things thrown in for variety. She also buys a few uniform sets- white collared shirts, black slacks, and black gakuran button-down jackets- from a specialty shop. 

Aware of the value humans place on material goods and currency, Takashi hopes all of these clothes don't cost her too much. But this is only a distant worry- Madara is more pressing, and his thoughts wander back to his celestial companion more often than not. 

Touko doesn't seem to notice, or if she does, she doesn't say anything, and that suits Takashi just fine. There's not much she could do even if he did tell her his concerns. 

And so, they return home without incident.


	8. Testing

The next day, a Thursday, Shigeru and Touko escort Takashi to the local (and only) high school roughly an hour before classes are due to start. From there a teacher (Nomiya Futoshi, Takashi remembers naming him) escorts him to a conference room so he can take a placement test while his guardians go through the enrollment process with the principal- simplified by there only being one high school in the entire district (the fact that said district is mostly rural farmland and doesn't have enough students to necessitate a second school is irrelevant). 

Nomiya-sensei, as he introduces himself, invites Takashi to take a seat somewhere at the elongated table, waiting until he sits down to place a decently thick packet of papers on the table in front of him, followed by exactly three number-2 pencils. 

"Please fill out this packet the best you can. I'll check on you in an hour, before class starts, but if I'm not here when you finish, you can just take it to the teachers' lounge." 

And then he leaves, shutting the door behind him. 

Takashi sets to work, answering questions which he'd answered many millennia before, and finishes filling out the test packet in roughly fifteen minutes. 

Casually, as if he has all the time in the world (which he does), he exits the room, passing a few students who'd arrived early for club activities on his way to the teachers' lounge. Their names flit about in his head, but he pushes them aside, briefly, as he knocks.

Nomiya-sensei answers, his face taking on an incredulous expression when he looks down at Takashi, before he schools it into something a bit more neutral. 

"Is the test giving you trouble, Natsume-kun?" He asks, because surely that's the only reason he would be here so soon, right? 

But Takashi passes the packet upwards to Nomiya-sensei's hands.

"Not at all, Nomiya-sensei. I finished it already." 

Nomiya-sensei flips through the pages, taking in Takashi's careful strokes of kanji and kana, and smiles thinly when he sees that, indeed, all the questions are answered. 

"That was very fast!" He says, closing the packet and idly reaching back to place it on his desk. 

"I'll hand this in, and your guardians will receive the results of your placement by sunday, alright?" 

Takashi nods and Nomiya-sensei turns his back to him. 

"Stay out of trouble now," he says, and Takashi leaves without giving a response.


End file.
